Software-defined networking (SDN) provides a mapping between logical topology requirements and physical infrastructure resources. Radio coordination is part of SDN for radio access networks (RANs). The SDN in RAN generally manages routing and traffic engineering (TE) to provide a forwarding path and required bandwidth or rate for traffic flow over each link over the path (multiple routes are also possible). The SDN in RAN also manages radio coordination to provide on-demand configuration of radio node specification, including the access link/backhaul link and the carrier. The on-demand configuration may include selecting built-in components with different specifications. The on-demand configuration can also include coordinating the mapping/allocation of the 5-tuple wireless resource (time/frequency/code/power/spatial) to active flows. However, as radio nodes functionality and RAN or other integrated network in general evolve, managing the control plane, such as in term of SDN framework, becomes challenging. There is a need for an improved control plane reference model and architecture for such networks including radio nodes and other nodes.